Draco Malfoy, veterinarian lackey
by Nival Vixen
Summary: COMPLETE! Draco is working at Ginny's veterinarian practice as her lackey. The job has it's appeals and downfalls, and some heavily outweigh the others. Tending to a Mackled Malaclaw, a lobster-like creature that harbours bad luck, is definitely not one of those appeals. Written for Michelle, aka Painted-Dragon. Rated as a precaution.


Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Request for Michelle.

**Ships:** Draco/Ginny. Bonus points for Pansy/Ron. Triple word score for a mention of Katie Bell and Marcus Flint.

**Prompt/request:** I'm keeping this pretty open for interpretation. I would like a fun story of either Draco or Ginny working with animals. Maybe someone runs a shelter or has a magical veterinary practice or even runs a magical zoo?

**Anything else you think is needed:** Snark and lots of it. Building "sexual" tension (resulting in a passionate snog/kiss/tasteful fade-to-black/whatever you care to do.). Maybe a bit of a mystery or intrigue? Animals need to be a big part of this story and I would love to see the intrinsic humor and heart-warming personalities of these animals.

Enjoy!

...

"I see you haven't taken the bucket out yet."

"Oh, shove off. It's not like it's a matter of life or death, Weasley!"

"Don't call me that, _Malfoy_, and yes it is! If you don't feed the animals, they'll starve and die. Now go and do your job," Ginny said, glaring briefly.

Draco muttered under his breath, but she was too engrossed with her work to hear him. Grabbing the bucket by the door, Draco left the vet with the injured Crup and headed over to the back area where the rest of the injured animals were kept.

"Oi, you slimy bastard! Throw some of that food down here, would you?"

Draco's eye twitched at the insult, especially one coming from a bloody Jarvey of all things, but he held back a lengthy retort and threw down a handful of grains. As soon as they hit the floor, the spell released and the Jarvey's required diet of leafy green vegetables appeared.

When they realised that Draco had arrived with their food, the large and varied group of animals crowded around him eagerly. They were all docile due to a few spells that Ginny put on them during their checkup or surgery, as well as a few dozen more that were built into the walls of the veterinary practice itself. It wouldn't do the business any good to offer a non-cage alternative to regular veterinaries only to have the inhabitants try to tear each other apart. The spells were harmless to the animals, simply used to make their stay pain-free. Unfortunately for Draco, the spells didn't work on humans as well, and his legs were burning from walking around for so long.

"_Go do some charitable work_, she says. _It'll be good for you_, she says," he muttered under his breath.

His muttering was in reference to his mother's words almost six months ago, where she deemed Draco as lazy, pulling the Malfoy name down into the mud again with his playboy ways, and determined that the only way to rectify both of these things was for Draco to do volunteer work in a charity. Draco had, of course, completely ignored her suggestion until a lawyer arrived on his doorstep with papers of disownment, to be signed by the Malfoy matriarch if Draco didn't do something with his life.

Loathing the idea of working for nothing, Draco applied for every high-paying job he saw. With little more than his basic education at Hogwarts, and no passion for anything but Quidditch and shagging, Draco found that he had little in the way of work skills. He'd applied for middle-class jobs only to find that he really had issues with authority and taking orders from others. The lowest paying jobs in the magical world were applied to in desperation, and as only one responded to his application, Draco had no choice but to take it. He'd still be taking orders, but he'd be left alone for the most part, so long as he did his duties.

_'Alone' was a bit of a stretch_, Draco thought to himself, looking at the tens of animals that were surrounding him.

There was a small hissing sound to his right and Draco looked over to see the three-headed Runespoor slithering over. It had been brought in by Marcus Flint and his fiancé Katie Bell because the left and middle head had tried to bite off the right head for the third time that week. Now, all of the heads were covered in small cone shapes, so that they couldn't bite at each other. The left head was making its way forward, the middle head dreaming, and the right head docile for the moment since it believed it was the one moving. They'd all come to their senses when the food was in front of them, but Draco just hoped he wasn't in the way when the right and left heads started arguing.

A crackling sound came from his robe lapel and Draco tapped his wand to the button to listen to whatever Ginny was going to tell him this time. _Maybe he hadn't scattered the food in the correct way_? he thought with a sneer.

"Mack's coming in in about half an hour as an emergency call. Cancel all of my appointments for the rest of the week, please. Do the same with yours if you want," Ginny said. "I'll be in room 312," she added.

"Ah, shit. I swear, Mack just knows when I've got a date coming up!" Draco said, scowling.

He threw the remainder of the grains on the floor, the animals scampering, clambering, and running to get the food.

The first time Mack had come in, Draco had foolishly thought that he wouldn't need to cancel his own appointments. He was just the vet's lackey, he wouldn't be affected. Oh, what a joke that had been. One scratch was all it took... Draco's four dates had all discovered each other and promptly dumped him, his mother had called for dinner _every _night that week, and as he'd gone to Floo to a Ministry function, the fireplace had somewhat exploded and destroyed his favourite dress robes. He'd learnt his lesson and always cancelled his appointments - even going so far as to refuse his mother's calls - for the week after Mack came to the vet.

It took him an hour to cancel both Ginny's appointments and his own, but most were understanding about the situation and more than happy to reschedule. When he'd finished, Draco went to room 312, pulling on a pair of thick dragon-hide gloves.

"All right, Mack. Just calm down. Shhh," Ginny said, attempting to soothe him unsuccessfully.

Mack had backed her into a corner, and didn't look calm in the slightest. Keeping his footsteps quiet, Draco moved behind him carefully. Before Mack could notice him, Draco did a quick Stunning spell, and both he and Ginny sighed in relief.

"Thank you, Draco. If you can pass me my gloves, I'll get started," Ginny offered, knowing how he disliked touching Mack.

Draco Accio'd the gloves and threw them to Ginny, stepping back a few paces. She tried not to roll her eyes, focusing instead on pulling her gloves on. When that was done, Ginny bent down to pick Mack up carefully. The Mackled Malaclaw was a lobster-like creature, but came with the unfortunate side effect of making people unlucky for a week if they were bitten by it. The dragon hide gloves could only do so much to ward against being bitten, and Mack was notorious for biting through the damn things.

"Let's just hope he stays unconscious while I work on him," Ginny muttered.

"What's wrong with him this time? He looks fine," Draco commented, moving closer to the table.

"Apparently he ate a rabbit's foot," she replied, raising her eyebrow with a slight grin.

"Malaclaw's only eat crustaceans. Mack wouldn't go near a rabbit unless those bloody kids tried to force-feed him again," Draco said angrily.

"Yes, well, you can tell their father that. I'll get the camera to take photos of the spectacular fight you two are sure to have," Ginny said with an amused grin.

"I've already told him twice. And I had to give you a hundred Galleons just to get the negatives of the last lot of photos," he said with a scowl.

"I didn't take it. I put it straight into the practice, so think of it as a donation to your future employment. I had to pay for someone to put those spells in, didn't I?" she commented, carefully working on removing Mack's outer shell.

A torrent of water gushed out of the shell, and Draco didn't know whether he felt nauseous or outraged at the sight.

"They've been trying to drown him in their pool _again_? He almost died the last time they did that! Don't those brats ever learn?"

"Apparently not," Ginny said, taking a small pair of tweezers and extracting the rabbit's foot carefully.

A few spells later and Mack was healed, back in his newly cleaned shell, and getting ready to be put into his carrier.

"That went quite well, didn't it?" Draco commented when Ginny had put Mack away. "I mean, neither of us got bitten at least."

There was a loud snapping noise, and Ginny paled suddenly, glaring at Draco and then at Mack. The Malaclaw had woken up while being moved back into his carrier, decided that he really didn't like being confined in such a small space, and promptly bit the closest surface, namely Ginny's leg.

"Thanks for jinxing it, Draco. Really, that's just what I wanted to happen this week."

"I already cancelled all of your appointments," Draco offered.

"Yes, but you won't be the one who has to suffer my mother coming over so she can supposedly look after me when all she really wants is attention. I mean, it's bad enough that I have to call her every damn night, but to have to be stifled with her presence through an entire week is my kind of personal hell," Ginny ranted.

Draco realised that Ginny's rant was going to end up being her bad luck for the week, and if any of the clients were to hear her spouting off in this way, there'd definitely be hell to pay. He knew from previous experience that a Silencing Spell would completely bounce off of her, the unluckiness seeming to pour out of her pores to repel spells. After moving Mack's cage carefully so as not to disturb the creature (or get bitten himself), Draco moved to take the still-ranting Ginny by the arms, kissing her soundly and quite effectively shutting her up. She wasn't a bad kisser either, Draco noted dazedly, his hands moving to rest on the small of her back and hold her closer to him.

Neither one heard the door open, but the resulting noise of abstract horror was something that neither would ever forget. A strangled sound, an inhuman screech, mixing with a bellow of horror and indignation, and the owner's face turning five shades of red before he tried to attack Draco.

"Get your filthy hands off of her!" Ron yelled loudly, seeming to find his voice once more.

He was unable to move due to a spell, and his wife rounded the corner to step into the room behind him.

"I could hear you from the waiting room, Ron. What on earth is the matter?" Pansy asked, looking between Draco and Ginny's compromising position to her husband's red face.

"They... They're... He was... She..."

"Do spit it out, Ron, we have a lunch appointment to keep," she drawled, raising her eyebrow at him.

"They were kissing!" he hissed.

"Still would be if you hadn't barged in," Ginny muttered, but unluckily, she said it louder than she intended and Ron spluttered at her words.

"Yes, yes, dear. A grown woman and a grown man were kissing. When we get out of here, I'll alert the_ Prophet_ to spread the news, okay?" Pansy said, shaking her head. "How is Mack? Did you get that awful rabbit's foot out of him?" she asked, cooing over the caged Malaclaw.

Mack went docile immediately, looking as innocent as a lobster-like creature could.

"Yes, I got it out. Took a bite for it, but the foot's out of him now. Please ask my dear niece and nephew to stop feeding him foreign objects, or else I'll start taking the payment for the bills out of their pocket money," Ginny said, grinning.

"And to stop trying to drown him in the pool again," Draco added with a mutter.

"You can't take the money out of their allowance when they won't be getting any," Pansy said, not happy about the children's mistreatment of her beloved pet _again_. "Come on, dear, let's go to lunch. We'll discuss ways to punish the children over food."

"But what about them?" Ron asked, glowering at his sister and Draco.

"Well, since Ginny's been bitten by our naughty little Mack, it looks like she'll be under house arrest for the next week. I'm sure Draco can look after her for that time. I'll let your mother know that she doesn't have to worry about checking in on you, Ginny dear," Pansy added, smirking at her.

"Thank you, Pansy. I appreciate it."

"I know you do... Coming, Ron?" Pansy called, picking up Mack's cage and leaving the room without looking back.

Ron looked a little lost, not knowing whether he should stay and yell some more, or follow his wife for their lunch date. His stomach rumbled loudly, making the decision for him, and Ron hurried out after Pansy, muttering under his breath about great white ferrets.

"Now, let's get you out of here before the Clambert decides to open the door again," Draco murmured, grinning at Ginny.

"You locked the door, didn't you?"

"Of course I did."

"Are you sure?"

"I said I locked it, Ginny, so it's locked."

"You said that last time and it wasn't locked."

"Fine, I'll go check that the door I locked earlier is still locked, all right?!"

Draco left to the animal enclosure, found that the door actually wasn't locked, hurried to lock it and return to where Ginny was waiting.

"It was locked," he said, smirking. "Now, I'm under strict orders to look after you for a week. I've organised for Charlie to look after the animals while we're away, and he's assured me that he won't be bring a dragon inside this time."

"Thank the gods for small mercies," Ginny muttered. "Now, where were we?" she asked, grinning at him brightly as she moved to kiss him again.

Tripping over her own feet, Ginny let out a yelp of surprise. Draco hurried to catch her before she hit the table and knocked herself unconscious.

"We were at the part where I was going to Apparate us both," he said, grinning down at her.

"Best get on with it then," Ginny said with a quick smile, standing up once more.

Draco nodded, willing to acquiesce to an order for now. Taking her arm carefully, he Apparated them away, concentrating very carefully so he wouldn't lose Ginny in the process.

The sight and sound of an ocean wasn't what Draco expected, especially since he had been thinking of Malfoy Manor, and definitely not the beach.

"Oh, this is _nice_," Ginny exclaimed, stepping forward onto the warm sand.

Draco made a sound of agreement, his eyes widening when he saw her starting to take her clothes off.

"What are you doing? Have you gone bonkers?" he hissed, glancing around them to make sure they were alone.

Ginny just laughed. "We're on Parkinson Island, Draco. I'm surprised you didn't notice the spell Pansy did. Mind you, I'm also surprised that you thought Mack would really bite me. He was told very sternly not to bite me again, and you know how loyal Malaclaw's are to their owners."

Glancing down, Draco noted that her legs were free of any bite marks. And were quite shapely, really. _How had he not noticed that before_?

"And the reason we're here?" he asked, realising that she seemed to know a bit more than he did at that current moment.

"Pansy decided I needed a holiday after putting up with you for the past six months. She was kind enough to let you come along with me," Ginny said, grinning.

"So you've kidnapped me ... to have a holiday?" Draco said incredulously.

"Hey, you're the one who Apparated, so technically, you've kidnapped me," she said with a laugh. "And besides, what would you prefer: a holiday with me, or being forced to entertain your mother every night this week? Pansy kindly mentioned to Narcissa that you'd be looking after me due to Mack biting me, and I believe your mother has already invited my mother for lunch," Ginny said, raising her eyebrows. "There's going to be premature talk of marriage, babies, commitment, and I'm really not up for all of that right now, are you?"

Draco decided that Ginny really did talk too much, and resumed his earlier task of kissing her senseless. She grinned against his lips, her arms around his neck. He turned around and carried Ginny up to the beach house, intent on making their holiday last.

Behind them, Draco and Ginny were both unaware of just how close they'd come to being bitten by a pair of Mackled Malaclaws.

...

The end.

Thank you for reading. I hope you liked it!


End file.
